( Leo’s POV )
‘C-1001’
As Leo walked into his new home for the year, he felt slightly excited to see how big of an upgrade it was compared to Sector D.
Having started his journey on the Arc Ship as a sewage cleaning worker who worked for Sector C supervisors, Leo felt like he had come a long way in a year, when he walked into the same Sector C quarters as his supervisors back then.
Outside his apartment door, there was a welcome kit placed for him, providing him with his new yellow robes and a new VR headset to play Terra Nova Online with, which looked clean and brand new.
Collecting those items, Leo moved to the inside of his apartment and was instantly blown away by how luxurious it looked compared to his home in sector D!
While it was still an apartment and not a full-blown house like those in sector A and S, the apartment in sector C was many times more luxurious than his previous abode in sector D, which he shared with 2 others.
As the door opened, the scene that awaited him was not one of a cramped corridor, but instead that of a proper welcome area which was about 10 feet wide, giving him a very spacious feel.
To the left down the entry passage was his room, which was twice the size of Amanda and Luke’s room in sector D and had a full king sized bed, a bedside table, a study desk and chair within.
The bed was comfortable and it allowed for Leo to roll over from end to end without having to fear falling off like he did when he slept on the couch in Sector D, whereas the furniture was a nice touch to the room, as with furniture lying around, the room did not seem empty despite its large size.
“I can sit and draw here when I like–” Leo muttered to himself, romantically rubbing his fingers over the study desk and chair as he imagined himself sitting over it and drawing sketches when he felt like it in the future.
Moving on, Leo next explored the room beside his bedroom and as he entered that room, he immediately felt the mana density around him increase sharply.
“Whoa— what is this room? The mana concentration within this is insane” Leo muttered to himself, as he could clearly feel that the mana density within this room was thrice that of the outside world.
While the room itself was completely empty, with nothing but a sitting mat placed at the center, Leo felt like there was something more to this room than just being an empty room with no furniture, as he felt like this room had a purpose that he had not yet discovered.
Finally, beside the second room was the kitchen and dining area of his apartment with there being a couple of induction stoves, a few cooking utensils, a functional fridge and food supplies stocked within.
“Whoa! You can cook your own food in Sector C? What?” Leo muttered, feeling shocked as he had never expected a functional fridge stocked with actual food supplies within his apartment.
[ Note :- The supplies in the fridge are supposed to last one week and will be refreshed weekly.
If unused, they will be automatically swapped at the end of the week, so please don’t get into the habit of saving food ]
Upon the fridge there was a note left behind, perhaps from the ship operators which explained the re-stocking schedule of the fridge and the items within.
“Hahaha, I can’t believe we have the luxury to cook our own food. Oh my god!” Leo muttered in joy, as he could not believe his good fortune at being able to cook actual food after only eating packed lunches for over a year.
Finally, he also checked out the dining table in the kitchen area which could comfortably sit six people at once, allowing him to have a small dinner gathering inside his apartment whenever he wished to have one.
Overall, it was a massive upgrade from sector D and Leo felt extremely satisfied with his progress within the social circles of the Arc Ship.
**********
( Meanwhile, the other passengers aboard the Arc-Ship )
Only a very small percentage of the population was happy like Leo during the second evaluation day.
As while very few people got promoted, there was a large percentage of people who saw their hopes of being promoted to a better sector be crushed today, as they failed to make the promotion cut despite trying their hardest over the past entire year.
To make matters worse, there were some who had even slipped to lower tiers and were shocked to see the abysmal living standards of those in the lower sectors, as after living in luxury for so long, many could not cope with the significantly less luxurious life that the lower sector environment had to offer.
While to a man who was promoted from sector E, the triple sharing apartment of sector D looked like heaven, to someone who was demoted from sector C, that same apartment looked filthy as he was used to a better life before.
The people who were the worst affected however, were undoubtedly those stuck in sector E, as for them the matter of promotion was like life and death, and those who failed to be promoted from that hell, felt their guts wrenched today, as despite trying their hardest for 358 days, they had failed in reaching the top10% cut-off, dooming them to yet another year of undignified slavery.
Some felt dejected, some motivated to try again, however most felt downright hopeless, as surviving within Sector E which was terrorized by local mafia and plagued by hard working hours was not easy at all.